Personal Injury Settlements for Clients with Disabilities: Preserving Means-Tested Government Benefits (2025 Edition)

Rachel Baer, Esq. | Commonwealth Community Trust

Rachel Baer, Esq. is Counsel and Director of New Client Services at Commonwealth Community Trust, a non-profit pooled trust administrator serving beneficiaries across the United States who are injured, vulnerable, or have special needs.

Prior to joining CCT, Ms. Baer was a partner at Family First Law Group, PLLC, in Alexandria, Virginia, and her practice focused on estate planning, estate and trust administration, and guardianship and conservatorship. Before entering private practice, Ms. Baer served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Virginia Attorney General’s Health Services Section from 2010 to 2012, helping to advise several state agencies that provide services to persons with disabilities.

Ben Tiefenback, Esq. | Commonwealth Community Trust

Ben Tiefenback, Esq., is Counsel and Director of Client Services at Commonwealth Community Trust, a non-profit pooled trust administrator serving beneficiaries across the United States who are injured, vulnerable, or have special needs.

Prior to joining CCT, Mr. Tiefenback was a trust and estate attorney at Sands Anderson PC and TrustBuilders Law Group. His practice focused on estate planning and trust creation and administration, with an emphasis on special needs trust planning due to his personal experiences with special needs issues in his family.

I. Special Needs Trusts | 1:00pm – 1:20pm

• Basics of special needs trusts
• Who is eligible for a special needs trust?
• Case study

II. Government Benefits | 1:20pm – 1:40pm

• Means-tested (Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid)
• Earned (Social Security Disability Insurance and Medicare)
• Dual eligibility

III. Pooled Special Needs Trusts (PSNTs) | 1:40pm – 2:00pm

• Federal guidelines for PSNTs
• Comparison to standalone special needs trusts
• Potential transfer of assets penalty for 65+
• Remainder policies
• Drafting guidelines for court orders when funding a PSNT
• Use of a structured settlement with PSNT
• Use of a Medicare Set-Aside account with PSNT
• Comparison to settlement preservation trusts

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

IV. Trust Administration (What Your Clients Can Expect) | 2:10pm – 2:25pm

• Roles and responsibilities of the pooled trust
• How to evaluate a pooled trust administrator
• Trust distribution process
• Trust distribution guidelines
  • Clients with means-tested benefits
  • Clients without means-tested benefits

V. ABLE Accounts | 2:25pm – 2:40pm

• Eligibility for ABLE accounts
• Alternate distribution guidelines